RIO CANGREJAL

11-12-06
The Rio Cangrejal is a few miles south of La Cieba. I originally met some locals who I saw driving down the road loaded with boats in the back of their truck. After talking with them they invited me to paddle with them the next day. They were a great group of guys but there paddling skills were terrible, we paddled the lower bottom section of the river which was an easy class three section and I think they swam more than they kayaked. It was still a fun afternoon on the river. As we approached the takeout I met a another couple of guys from Switzerland who caught up to us. After talking with them they invited me to run the upper class 5 section of the Cangrejal ( as long as I left my new found friends on the lower section). They had a friend of theirs that has a jungle lodge in the middle of the run were we would spend the night.
Lars and Bruno are from Interlaken Switzerland and very good paddlers. We arranged for a local to drive us the 20 miles up to the put in. They also arranged for a boat and gear from me, also from their friend who owned the jungle lodge. The river was flowing about 1500 c.f.s very steep boulder choked with lots of medium sized pool drop rapids, very much like the upper Taos box in New Mexico, but through the thick jungle. The water was a great temperature of about 80 degrees, no dry top needed!!! Lars and Bruno had been running the section all week so I was able to follow them and run their lines. There were a couple of big drops of about 10-15 feet that we stopped to scout on my behalf. It was a fun exciting section. About half way through the run we came to the Omega Jungle Lodge. It was a great set up right off the river, great food and plenty of cold beer. Cutting through the camp was a crystal clear mountain stream that pooled up creating several large pools ideal for a refreshing mid afternoon swim. The camp was built to accommodate their rafting customers but at the time there were none, just river guides and the couple who own the outfit. The guides were an interesting mix of river rats from New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Colorado, México and Costa Rica. It was a good crew and as usual they liked to party and tell river lies well into the night. The following morning we put back on the river and a few of the guides joined our group. There were some talented paddlers in the group all running very interesting lines down the lower section. I ended my streak of seven years without a swim trying to run a crazy line that Tim from New Zealand ran. The move was 8 foot drop with a boof over a sticky hole that I didn’t clear, I got worked for a short while in the sticky recirculating hole, pulled my skirt and then got maytagged for a short period than finally I was able to swim out to a big international applause, the only damage was to my ego and a small bruise to my pride and a broken helmet. Tim later told me at the takeout that after many tries it was his first time successfully making the move, than burst into a fit of laughter. It was a great time and thanks Lars and Bruno and the gang at Omega, except for Tim.







The seven year no swim streak just ended, hope I can go another seven years!! ,
check out the broken helmet hanging off my neck
Adios, See you down river